Omg 😮 the fluidity and flexibility of those building snippets are huge turn ons. I do not even mind this art style that much but I would like some genetics play to be included in the final version. I think what he can do is make a caw tool and let the community take over and he can just make a small starting world. That will lessen his work load... Probably.

Ugh I really hope it works out. I've been waiting for a competitor for so long! He should make a Kickstarter. I dislike Patreon. Guys I can't get over how good the building looks oof. It's everything I wanted in the sims building. Hopefully he adds create a style, or at least a color wheel. The building looks so good...

Color wheel is already in, as well as editing certain mesh parts of the objects, like the curtain pole can be changed in shape. He also plans to add dynamic resizing to every item. This is where this simple art style helps. You can just stretch the chair mesh to a bench mesh like you stretch buildings in spore, and the texture won't be distorted because of the simple style.

I'm still waiting for live mode sneak peaks. D:

Some new bits of info gathered from discord:

The developer is currently experimenting with procedurally generated animations. This may allow for gradual aging and maybe height sliders.

Also currently working on character movement and pathfinding, so we may see some of the simulation soon.

Windows will be allowed on curved walls. Stairs can be attached to walls and platforms of any angle and height.

The world doesn’t appear to be grid based, but grids will be able to be toggled on or off with building.

Everything seems animated, from the grass blowing in the wind to opening windows and curtains.

There's already a color wheel. It also appears you can change the pole of the curtain, which I find super cool and quite revolutionary for a life sim game. The other two buttons probably are copy/clone and delete/sell.

As exciting as this looks I feel we shouldn't get too excited. This is HUGE undertaking! It sound very ambitious and I can't see anything of this scale coming out anytime soon. Of course I hope that I am wrong and it works out!

Very ambitious can be a good thing as well think about the sims 2. The team was extremely ambitious and look how it turned out. It's a shame they couldn't add everything they wanted given it was not indie but I digress I understand what you mean. It's good not to put ones eggs in only one basket if you understand the term. I will say that we, unfortunately, really don't know how long this individual with his team has been working on this project. So who knows when it's will be ready. I'm trying to keep hope that it will be excellent. And I'm hoping he and his team don't rush for the sake of the hype. The more time he takes to perfect his system the better quality his game will be. So im glad to wait no matter how long it takes.

Aside from complex construction element, anybody notice the wind shadder mechanic? Plants and the tire with the rope is swaying to sides.

It's amazing!

Looking gorgeous and surprisingly polished! I guess the previous gifs didn't do the graphics justice.

Yeap. I noticed right away when I saw the first couple of GIFs. This is the very first Life Sim game with a physics engine.

Watching the video I wonder if this game has LOTS as we traditionally know them. Maybe you can build anywhere in this game. Just watch the cursor; he has the wall tool selected and doesn't appear to be any restrictions as to where he can build.

I don't believe you can have a realtime physics engine with an open world, so if we're having this it will have to be a one lot at a time job like TS2. Which is fine by me. Would be nice to see sims able to fall over etc by genuine accident rather than by pre-animated attempt at humour

Maybe these LOTS are much larger, like 70-80x80 size.

Shit graphics.

No imagination!

Doesn't look too terrible to me, though I don't think the answer to TS4's cartoonesque art style is to make something even more cartoonesque. But I'll reserve judgement until I know what this is and if it's better than the only worthwhile life simulator, Project Vie.

The problem with TS4 isn't the art style but the quality of the graphics (low poly meshes, low frequency or res textures, choppy animations, bad lighting, awful particle effects). So far this game seem to have higher quality assets and better implementation of the stylized art style than TS4, and it's just a pre-alpha build.

"For objects, clothes, hair and skin tones, there will be presets to make it easier but also a full color wheel for advanced customization"

"Yes, you can change patterns and textures"

More info from discord server. I hope he's not hyping it but, the preview of the game is coming soon and he's already been working on this for a year, I hope it's true that this single person made what EA never could.

True, but good lighting, shaders and assets isn't magically going to make this art style not overused. Seriously. It's a phase, game devs need to get over it. I'm playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 here and that was considered cartoonish when it came out. You wouldn't be able to tell, looking at it now.

That's the thing I do love about older games. Art styles back then had better balance of colours and less Post-Processing effects actually made the games more realistic and less stylized. I find many modern games horrendous to look at because everything tends to be exaggerated and unbalanced. There's bloom and then there's coming-out-of-a-coma-bright-hospital-lights-can't-see-anything. And don't even get me started on the bullshit that is Ambient Occulsion and Chromatic Abberation.

Ambient occlusion isn't bullshit, it's an important lighting effect that helps create natural shading. Chromatic abberation also enhances realism, if it's subtle enough. Any high-end AAA title from the last 5 years will have both, though TS4 has neither. TS4 has a cheap edge-based occlusion effect that doesn't really add anything. It officially qualifies as AO but it's so primitive that I wouldn't really call it that.

There is nothing natural about ambient occlusion and chromatic aberration. I challenge you to prove scientifically that the naked human eye can perceive AO and CA the same way they're depicted in video games.

Put on a pair of glasses. Distortion of light. There's your CA.
Look into virtually any given room. There's your indirect lighting, that AO approximates.

What you're doing here is saying something that's blatantly false and I'm not going to argue about it because it's not up for debate. These are basic topics within the field of optics.

...LOL

I said naked eye.